Author(s)

Tshebukani Mzingaye Moyo¹, Edwin Sibanda², Notion Tafara Gombe^1,3, Tsitsi Patience Juru¹, Emmanuel Govha¹, Maurice Omondi⁴, Addmore Chadambuka^1*, Mufuta Tshimanga¹

¹Department of Primary Health Care Sciences, Global and Public Health, University of Zimbabwe, Harare, Zimbabwe.
²Bulawayo City Council Department of Health, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.
³African Field Epidemiology Network, Harare, Zimbabwe.
⁴African Field Epidemiology Network, Nairobi, Kenya.

Background: Tuberculosis is a leading cause of death globally, and the third leading cause of death in Zimbabwe. Death from any cause following a diag-nosis of tuberculosis is classified as a tuberculosis death. Bulawayo Province reported high tuberculosis death rates from 15.3% in 2016 to 14.2% in 2019 against a threshold of 5%. We analyzed tuberculosis deaths for Bulawayo Province to characterize patients dying and to make recommendations for im-proving treatment outcomes for susceptible tuberculosis cases. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted. We analyzed all (N = 469) records of tuberculosis deaths from 19/19 Bulawayo tuberculosis diagnosing centers from 01 January 2016 to 31 December 2019. Microsoft^® Excel 2007 was used to generate graphs and Stata^® version 17 was used to conduct chi-square tests for trends. Results: Males accounted for 278/469 (59.3%) of the deaths. The median age of death was 40 years (Q₁ = 33: Q₃ = 51). The proportion of TB deaths increased from 63/114 (55%) in 2016 to 57/90 (63%) in 2019 for males (p < 0.01). The majority of deaths 278/469 (59.3%) occurred in the intensive phase of treatment and anemia was a co-morbid condition in only 44/469 (9.4%) of the tuberculosis deaths. Testing for anemia was not rou-tinely done. Conclusion: High death rates particularly in the intensive phase, could be attributed to sub-optimal clinical care. Tuberculosis programs should work towards adopting differentiated care models for tuberculosis patients and developing algorithms for patients at high risk of death.

Tuberculosis Death, Secondary Data Analysis, Bulawayo Province, Zimbabwe

Moyo, T. , Sibanda, E. , Gombe, N. , Juru, T. , Govha, E. , Omondi, M. , Chadambuka, A. and Tshimanga, M. (2022) Secondary Data Analysis of Tuberculosis Deaths in Bulawayo Province, Zimbabwe, 2016-2019. Open Journal of Epidemiology, 12, 57-67. doi: 10.4236/ojepi.2022.121005.